The gay former foreign policy and national security spokesman for Mitt Romney has broken his silence and is now speaking out about his resignation. Grenell is now saying that he was not forced out. Instead he decided to resign because he felt he had become too much of a distraction.

“They did not force me to resign. I resigned because I’m very passionate about foreign policy and national security issues.” But, he says, “When the messenger becomes part of the message — if you really care about these issues — you should step aside.”

Grenell added that some of the worst attacks he got over the whole ordeal came from the left.

In an interview with The Desert Sun, Grenell said: “The far left doesn’t want a gay person to be conservative and the far right doesn’t want a conservative to be gay. Some of the most hateful, mean-spirited intolerant comments about me being the foreign policy and national security spokesman for Governor Romney … were coming from the left.”